"Not only do they not get taxed, they can write off their morgages too. "

If so, is that different than what other charitable organizations can do? If not, again, why single religious organizations out?

<<That's not documentation. You said that their personal incomes were not subject to taxation, not that their organizations were not subject to taxation. Charitable organizations, religious or otherwise, may be free from taxation, but my understanding is that their salaried leaders still have to pay income tax.>>

I can't provide you with paper documents personally. I wouldn't be permitted access to that information. I'm sure this isn't what you meant by documentation.

However, of all of the conceivable legal or illegal activities one could perform in the world, the one which is the easiest to document would have to be paying income tax. Either you do, or you do not, and the proof is in the filed and completed form, or is notable in the absence of such. If a completed form is absent, there must be a legitimate excuse for it. Otherwise, you would be sent to prison for Tax evasion as they did for Al Capone.

So likely, Tilton and Hagee would decide to pay themselves a salary from their ministry and likely pay income tax on that. However, there are some discrepancies about what belongs to the 'Ministry' and what is considered 'personal property'. An example would be the purchase of a private jet for the 'Ministry', and writing it off as tax exempt while using this private jet exclusively for family vacations. Are the mansions Tilton and Hagee live in considered their own personal property, or do they belong to the Ministry?

In this link, "Make not my Father's house a house of Merchandise (John 2:16)", it outlines very clearly the tax avoidance strategies employed by John Hagee and Tilton.

There is a great deal of information on this site about the financial corruption in the Christian church today, and this is from a Christian perspective as well! Doubtless this is at the heart and soul of the matter of the 'Crisis in Christianity' today. How can these tele-Evangelists live lives of such extraordinary extravagance and indulgence funded solely from the tax-deductible contributions of their viewers?

The Vatican is also mentioned as well as Tilton and Hagee. Here is a selected excerpt.

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While in St. Louis some 18 months ago, I chanced to view the infamous Robert Tilton from Texas. Long thought to have expired from televangelism due to a major exposure of his wealth and flagrant use of Christian funds (facing lawsuits and ultimate collapse for a season). Tilton was seen by yours truly on the tube. This ghostly figure boldly declared that verses in Deuteronomy literally allow God’s people to speak wealth into being and generate wealth by simple declaration and speaking ex cathedra. Now one can (under this spontaneous combustion theory of wealth), have ever-increasing faith (i.e., money) to invest in Tilton’s wallet. What a revolting display of heresy did I witness here?

Again, not to be topped--listen to what John Hagee told the San Antonio Newspaper (Analisa Nazareno, Express-News Business Writer, July 6, 2003):

“Hagee instructs church members to hold their money toward the heavens. The thousands repeat after him: Give and it shall be given. When you give, it qualifies you to receive God’s abundance, he tells his listeners. If God gives to you before you give to him, God himself will become a liar . . . If you’re not prospering, it’s because you’re not giving.”

Nazareno continues . . .

“Hagee’s compensation was among the highest pay packages for television evangelists in 2001, according to IRS 990 filings . . . (Hagee continued in his justification for such a package): Faced with questions about his personal finances and the profitability of GETV, Hagee raised his voice and said: We are hiding absolutely nothing from nobody. I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid of the government, but I am afraid of God. And I’m not going to lie to God and go to hell over this.”

Again, Nazareno . . .

“Hagee would have little reason to fear the federal government. Other than disclosing their 990 forms, nonprofit organizations have little federal government oversight. Each year, the IRS may examine the tax returns of 1 percent of the 1 million nonprofit organizations that disclose income, according to an IRS spokesman. So, while the IRS has stringent rules about the disclosure of profits and investments, as well as income requirements for officers, most nonprofits such as GETV (Hagee’s Media Network) will operate virtually tax-free with little scrutiny, if any.

“In fact, when the federal government challenged his church’s nonprofit status in the mid-1990s, Hagee elicited the help of high-profile lawyers who worked often with Christian enterprises and sued the U.S. Postal Service when it denied his church a nonprofit bulk mail discount. A year after Hagee sued, the Postal Service settled with him, granted his church the discount on its mailings in 1999 and refunded more than $40,000 in excess postage fees.”

www.the-tribulation-network.com/do...htm
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